Ohio State is 1-3 in its last four games, and Ryan Day needs to provide some answers — fast

There really isn’t much to be said about what happened to Ohio State on Saturday night.

The Buckeyes dominated in the first half against Texas, holding a 20-3 lead at the half and extending that to a 23-3 lead with 8:09 left in the third quarter. The Longhorns proceeded to score touchdowns on three straight possessions as Ohio State sputtered out and collapsed, ultimately losing the game 24-23.

It is among the worst losses of the Ryan Day era, second to only the 13-10 defeat to Michigan in 2024.

There is no shortage of reasons why the Buckeyes lost this game.

Ohio State could muster only three points and 132 total yards in the entire second half. After scoring points on four of their first five drives of the game, the Buckeyes’ five possessions in the second half netted three punts and two field goal attempts, the second of which — a 45-yard kick that would’ve iced the game with 4:21 remaining — wasn’t even close.

That said, while not every loss for Ohio State under Day has been this dramatic, almost all of them have featured at least two of three key elements: shortcomings in the red zone, poor clock management and a disastrous special teams unit.

This game had all three!

Texas was practically begging Ohio State to run away with it early on, gifting the Buckeyes a red zone trip right from their opening possession after a fumble. The resulting drive netted 11 yards on six plays, and Day’s group ended up with a 26-yard field goal.

That was a central theme of the game. Ohio State only managed 13 points on its first four trips to the red zone, with another 30-yard field goal and a turnover on downs at the Texas 12-yard line thrown in the mix.

It was not dissimilar to the 2016 loss to Clemson in the College Football Playoff, where the Buckeyes’ red zone woes ultimately turned a potential blowout into a heartbreaking loss.

Then came the poor clock management. Once Texas got the ball to the Ohio State 1-yard line with 1:23 left to play, Day should have called his final timeout and allowed the Longhorns to score, giving Julian Sayin and the offense more than a minute to try and put together a drive to win the game only needing a field goal.

Instead, the Buckeyes made Texas run three more plays to reach the end zone, leaving Ohio State with 25 seconds left, zero timeouts and zero chance of any last-minute heroics.

It isn’t the first time poor clock management has aided in an Ohio State loss under Day, as a bungling of the final possession against Georgia in the 2022 College Football Playoff saw the Buckeyes get the ball back with 51 seconds left before mustering only a 50-yard field goal attempt, which they obviously missed, with three seconds remaining.

Which brings me to the final point: special teams.

Ohio State’s special teams has been a complete and utter disaster throughout Day’s tenure in Columbus.

A missed field goal played a factor in that Georgia loss, a missed chip-shot led to a loss against Indiana in last year’s Big Ten title game, and another missed kick against Miami in the College Football Playoff could’ve changed the tenor of that contest — just to name a few!

Even when they went out a got a ‘proven’ kicker, it still didn’t work out. Connor Hawkins missed a potential game-sealing 45-yard field goal with 4:21 remaining. The kick would’ve made a comeback nearly impossible at 26-17, but instead Texas was given the chance to take snatch victory from the jaws of defeat, and they did.

It hasn’t only been field goals, though. Punting has also been objectively horrible.

Joe McGuire ranked 109th in FBS in punting a year ago, and Ohio State had no issue trotting him back out there for this season. After averaging 41 yards per punt against Ball State — a mark that would have tied for 113th nationally in 2025 — he averaged 39 yards per punt against Texas.

The Buckeyes’ inability to flip the field didn’t lose them the game against the Longhorns, but it certainly didn’t help! It is inexcusable for a place like Ohio State to not be able to go out and get at least a replacement-level punter.

It may seem like a small thing, but when talent equates in games of this magnitude you simply have to win on the margins. Day clearly does not understand that this also applies to the special teams unit, and it continues to burn him in these big games no matter how many losses they take.

Ohio State is now in a very weird spot.

The Buckeyes have lost three of their last four games, and while they will have a few tune-up opportunities coming up before their next big matchup against Indiana on Oct. 17, why should we really expect anything to change?

Day’s teams continue to lose the same types of games in the same types of ways, and he has yet to learn from any of them. The offense turtles when times get tough, the defense has trouble getting stops late, the special teams unit is completely ineffective and the time management is nonsensical.

The head coach is going to have to take a look in the mirror and figure out a real, material fix to some of these problems, or we are going to see a few similar results come October and November.